8 Job Interview Tips You Might Not Have Yet Heard Before

Anytime we’re looking for a job, we tend to ask lots of people or search the World Wide Web for hints and ideas. However, it seems like everyone is telling you about the same old things like writing a great cover letter, tailoring your resume to the job, widening your network and reaching out to it... All of these tips tend to get repeated over and over again.

Now, instead of hearing the same old advice, this article will give you some tips that you might have not heard. Without further ado, let’s take a look at them.

1. Whatever your interviewer is reading, read it.

Most likely, you’ve seen plenty of articles offering interview tips to job seekers. Yet, have you seen or read any article giving advice to the interviewers? By reading some of these, you’ll get a sense of what they’re trained to look for in an applicant and why they might ask certain questions. So, whatever it is you think the interviewer’s reading, you should read it as well.

2. Practice with a friend, and play the interviewer’s part.

A number of experienced hiring managers who have already interviewed many candidates say that they don’t get nervous at their own job interviews anymore simply because they’ve already handled so many interviews themselves and so already know how the interviewer’s mind works. This is actually true and beneficial. So if you have a friend who is also a job seeker, try to role play and practice with him or her and play the interviewer’s role.

3. Discover your fears.

Identify the questions you’re most anxious about, and if they’re about something specific like salary or why you left the previous job, don’t just hope and pray that it won’t be asked or that a good answer will come out of your mouth right at the moment. Instead, start assuming that these questions will be asked, and prepare and practice your answers over and over again. That way, it will be easy for you to answer these questions if they’re asked.

4. Is there a time slot available in the morning for the interview? Try to ask for it.

If there’s a morning slot that’s available for an interview, try to get that one. By getting it all done in the morning, you won’t have to worry about the nerves increasing as each hour passes during the day of the interview

5. Ask in advance (politely) whom you’ll be having the interview with.

It’s perfectly fine to ask for details about the interview, and particularly whom you’ll be meeting with. If you find out beforehand, this will decrease the pressure and fears you’ll get when you walk through the door on the day of the interview. Plus, you’ll have enough time to research about the person/s so that you’ll know how to prepare yourself for them.

6. Don’t come too early.

When candidates show up more than five or 10 minutes earlier than the expected time of the interview, most interviewers get annoyed. Why? They feel obliged to stop what they’re doing and go out to greet and welcome you. To avoid that, come early to the interview (because who knows if you’re going to face a traffic jam or other kinds of delays), but don’t walk through the front door until five minutes before your scheduled time.

7. Recommendation letters? Skip that part.

If you think that you’re strengthening your application by gathering recommendation letters from your past managers, you’re just wasting your time and theirs. If hiring managers want to speak to your references, they’ll ask you to provide reference contact information. So, skip these letters unless an interviewer asks for them.

8. Put the job out of your mind after the interview.

Don’t dwell on what happened in the interview. Once it’s done, it’s done. Don’t make yourself go crazy agonizing how it went or second-guessing your answers and trying to predict when the employer will get back to you. Put your mind at ease and keep yourself on track. Make a note on your calendar to schedule the follow-up if you haven’t heard back in two weeks.

Take note of these job interview tips; they’re unusual but definitely worth trying about. You might or might not have heard of them, but they can certainly help you achieve your goal of landing a job.

Alan is the creator of Interview Success Formula, a training program that has helped more than 40,000 job seekers to ace their interviews and land the jobs they deserve. Interviewers love asking curveball questions to weed out job seekers. But the truth is, most of these questions are asking about a few key areas. Learn more about how to outsmart tough interviewers by watching this video.